The Soldotna City Council certified the results of the May 1 special election during their Wednesday meeting. The Soldotna voters barred the city from purchasing property at 44075 Sterling Highway for $2.1 million to be used for relocating the Soldotna Visitor Center.

There were 675 total votes, according to the city. There were 417 total no votes, or about 62 percent, while 258 voters checked yes, or about 38 percent.

The city's canvass board reported 149 absentee ballots, but 63 of them were rejected, mostly for non-registered voters.

The Kenai Peninsula Education Association and the Kenai Peninsula Education Support Association filed an Unfair Labor Practices claim against the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District on Tuesday.

The unions filed the complaint with the Alaska Labor Relations Agency because the district released confidential information during the mediation for contract negotiations on its website, according to a KPEA/KPESA press release. 

About 2,500 rainbow trout were helped into Johnson Lake Tuesday by elementary school students. Some fish were gently guided with small plastic bowls, while other students took a more radical approach -- using their bowls to launch the fish into the lake.

"I thought it was kind of funny that 100 kids just throw fish out in the water," Brandon Rasmussen, a fourth-grader at Tustumena Elementary said. "They must be pretty traumatized fish."

Before this school year, Soldotna police officer Tobin Brennan would go in to area schools in full uniform and students wouldn’t make eye contact. That all changed with Officer Brennan became Soldotna’s D.A.R.E. teacher. He was tasked with teaching six classes in three different schools. Now when walks through the halls of Redoubt, Soldotna or Kalifornsky Beach elementary schools, he gets fist bumps and high fives.